International News Bulletin — September 12, 2026

Politics

• BRICS adopts the New Delhi Declaration by consensus – Leaders of the 11-member grouping unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration on Saturday at the opening of the 18th BRICS summit, held under India’s chairship on the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”. Indian officials said consensus was reached only after days of negotiation over language on West Asia; the text calls for conflict prevention and the peaceful settlement of disputes through dialogue, and voices concern at unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures it describes as inconsistent with World Trade Organization rules. It also backs restoration of a fully functioning two-tier WTO dispute settlement system, comprehensive UN Security Council reform, and further work on cross-border payments in local currencies through the New Development Bank.
• Modi and Xi back a negotiated settlement of the border – Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met on the summit sidelines on Saturday, Xi’s first visit to India in seven years, and endorsed what Indian readouts called a fair and reasonable settlement of the boundary dispute. Modi said “peace and tranquillity” in the border areas remained an essential basis for the relationship, which collapsed after the 2020 clash in eastern Ladakh; Xi said China viewed ties with India from a strategic and long-term perspective. The two governments have already resumed patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control and eased business visa rules over the past year.
• Trump meets Irish leaders and endorses Irish unification – President Donald Trump was received by President Catherine Connolly at Áras an Uachtaráin and by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Farmleigh House on Saturday, at the start of a two-day visit, and said relations between the two countries had “never been as good as it is right now”. Asked about the unification of Ireland and Northern Ireland, he said it “is going to happen eventually, it may as well happen now”, while noting that “the U.K. will have something to say about it”. RTÉ reported thousands of protesters in central Dublin and smaller demonstrations at Shannon and Doonbeg, where Trump travelled to attend the Irish Open at his golf resort.
• North Korea fires ballistic missiles after allied naval drills – South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several short-range ballistic missiles were launched from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan at about 5:20am on Saturday and flew roughly 250 kilometres out to sea. The presidential National Security Office convened an emergency meeting with the defence ministry and said it was exchanging information with Washington and Tokyo, while US Pacific Command assessed that the launches posed no immediate threat to US territory or to allies. The tests came a day after the United States, South Korea and Japan completed five days of joint maritime exercises, which Pyongyang’s defence minister had said would draw “strong and reflective countermeasures”.
• EU approves 6.1 billion euros for Ukrainian air defence – The European Commission announced on Friday that it had approved 6.1 billion euros for Ukraine to procure air and missile defence systems, ammunition, drones and electronic warfare equipment, including PAC-3 interceptors for Patriot batteries. The money is drawn from the 90 billion euro Ukraine Support Loan and exhausts the 28.3 billion euros earmarked for Ukrainian defence in 2026; five derogations were granted covering Ukrainian-made drones above cost thresholds and US-made equipment. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the decision, and Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said delivering anti-ballistic missiles to Ukraine was “urgent”.

Economy

• Saudi Arabia shuts its East-West pipeline after drone attack – Riyadh ordered the temporary closure of the 1,200-kilometre East-West Crude Oil Pipeline, which runs from the Abqaiq field to the Red Sea port of Yanbu and had been carrying 4 to 5 million barrels a day, after drones launched from Iraq’s Maysan province struck it and the equipment operating it. The line had been the kingdom’s main alternative export route since the Strait of Hormuz was closed in the spring, so its shutdown removes roughly 4 to 5 percent of global supply at a time when spare capacity is minimal; no group claimed responsibility and an umbrella body of Iran-aligned Iraqi militias denied involvement. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi dismissed the Maysan operations commander early on Saturday and closed a border crossing with Iran, while Saudi Arabia said it had not retaliated but reserved the right to take all necessary measures.
• American diesel passes six dollars a gallon for the first time – The national average price of diesel reached a record on Friday, quoted at $6.05 a gallon by NBC News and at $6.06 by UPI, both citing AAA, against a previous high of $5.82 set in June 2022 and about $3.71 a year ago. Regular unleaded averaged $4.29. Analysts attributed the move to the closure of Hormuz, damage to refineries in the Middle East and eastern Europe and Russia’s diesel export ban, with KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk warning that “the cost of diesel gets into just about everything” and that the effect would persist for months.
• US consumer sentiment falls to its second-lowest reading on record – The University of Michigan’s preliminary index for September came in at 47.8, down 7.5 percent from August and well below the 51.0 expected, the weakest print since May in a series going back to 1952. The current conditions gauge slipped to 50.9 from 51.9 and the expectations component fell to 45.8 from 51.5; one-year inflation expectations rose to 4.6 percent from 4.0 percent and the five-year measure to 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent. The survey cited fuel prices and trade tensions, and lands four days before the Federal Reserve’s policy decision on Wednesday.
• China Southern restores the Delhi to Guangzhou air link – China Southern Airlines said on Saturday it would resume a daily round trip between Indira Gandhi International Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun from 21 September, ending a suspension of almost six years and flying Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on flights CZ359 and CZ360. The carrier said it would operate more than 100 weekly flights across eight round-trip routes in the region. Bilateral trade reached a record $151.1bn in the year to March 2026, with India’s deficit widening to $112.16bn from $99.21bn.

World News

• Houthis threaten to close the Bab al-Mandab entirely – The Houthi movement warned on Saturday against foreign intervention in its offensive on Yemen’s internationally recognised government and said it could shut the Bab al-Mandab strait completely, days after seizing Mayun island and the rest of the Red Sea coastline. About 12 percent of world trade normally passes through the strait, and a closure would force vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding two to three weeks to voyages between Asia and Europe. President Donald Trump said the group had contacted Washington asking it not to intervene.
• Russian strikes kill civilians across Ukraine as Putin warns Europe – Zaporizhzhia regional head Ivan Fedorov said two people were killed and one wounded when drones hit a residential area overnight, while Odesa regional head Oleh Kiper reported 35 wounded in what he called a massive attack. The Associated Press first reported three civilians killed nationwide on Saturday and revised the toll to eight by later editions, adding deaths in Kryvyi Rih, Kramatorsk and Zhytomyr. Speaking to reporters at the BRICS summit in New Delhi on Friday, President Vladimir Putin said that if European governments sent troops into Ukraine it would mean “a war with Russia”, and denied that Moscow posed any threat to Europe.
• Nigeria’s parliament suspends official visits to South Africa – The National Assembly voted on Friday to bar its committees, lawmakers, officials and staff from travelling to South Africa, including virtual engagements, over continuing violence against migrants. Nigeria’s minister of state for foreign affairs put the number of Nigerians killed there since 2022 at at least 98, and parliament spokesman Akin Rotimi said the assembly “cannot ignore persistent attacks on citizens abroad”. Al Jazeera reported that between 90,000 and 178,000 foreign nationals have been repatriated or deported since anti-migrant protests began in March, with the figures varying by source.
• CIA declassifies presidential briefings on bin Laden – The agency released several dozen presidential daily briefs on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the attacks, covering February 1998 to 12 September 2001 and tracking Osama bin Laden’s movements, financing and network inside the United States. Director John Ratcliffe called it the agency’s largest single release of such documents. The files show the CIA repeatedly warning Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush that bin Laden intended to strike American targets, beginning three years before the hijackings.
• Nearly half of migratory bird species are in decline – BirdLife International’s State of the World’s Birds report, launched at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi on Friday, found that 45 percent of the 1,843 migratory species assessed have shrinking global populations and that one in nine is threatened with extinction. Thirty percent are stable, 14 percent are increasing and the trend is unknown for the remaining 11 percent, with farming, warming and illegal hunting identified as the main pressures. Governments and financial institutions at the summit pledged about $6bn for habitat restoration along the main flyways.

Bulletin automatically generated on September 12, 2026.